Netflix has been instrumental in bringing us some great anthologies recently, paving way for this new trend. However, one of them has received global recognition this year at the Asian Academy Creative Awards. The awards presented every year as part of the Singapore Media Festival, recognizes excellence in the Film and Television industry across 16 nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
The third segment in the anthology ‘Ajeeb Dastaans‘, director Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Geeli Pucchi’ featuring Konkona Sen and Aditi Rao Hydari in the lead, dealt with the portrayal of a lesbian relationship against the background of caste discrimination. While the short had received critical acclaim upon its release, it has proved to be a winner for streaming giant Netflix. Read on to know why.
Actress Konkona Sen was honoured with the award for ‘Best Actress in a leading role’ for her solid performance in ‘Ajeeb Dastaans’, moreover the segment ‘Geeli Pucchi’ also won the award for ‘Best anthology episode’. So it’s a double whammy for the series produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, that premiered on Netflix on 16th April earlier this year.
Actor Manoj Bajpayee has also been winning accolades for ‘The Family Man 2’ and post receiving immense love from audiences and critics alike, he has now taken home the trophy for ‘Best Actor in a leading role’ for his performance, at the Asian Academy Creative Awards 2021. Naseeruddin Shah won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for ‘Bandish Bandits’ and Amruta Subhash bagged ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for ‘Bombay Begums’.
Another big winner at the coveted awards was director Hansal Mehta’s superhit series ‘Scam 1992’, that released on SonyLiv last year. The Pratik Gandhi-led show that chronicled the life of controversial businessman Harshad Mehta won two honours at the awards, they being for ‘Best drama series’ and ‘Best direction (fiction)’ bagged by Mehta.